Filling Her Bowl

With two children grown and out of the house, Mary Jane Branstetter felt that it was time to do something for herself.

"When I married my husband, Terry, he had a business and that was his goal, his dream; all through the years I've worked beside him helping to fill 'his bowl.' Maybe it was the change of life, the kids leaving, but I felt like 'I want my bowl,'" states Branstetter. "My husband always looked at his bowl as my bowl too, but I wanted my own—something that is my own hopes and dreams and personal accomplishments. Up to this point, I didn't have a bowl; it seemed more like a sieve. One day he looked at me and said, 'okay, go fill your bowl.'"

Branstetter toyed with ideas other than attending college, but they just didn't feel quite right. States Branstetter, "Somehow school was always where I came back to."

She had to sell her husband on the idea of going to college initially. "He's business-minded," explains Branstetter. "He asked me how this was going to be beneficial to us, what was the return. I finally got it into his head that it wasn't business or beneficial to 'us;' it was something for me, something I needed to do."

Branstetter enrolled at the University Park campus in 2000 as a provisional student, having no SAT scores. After taking classes at Penn State Altoona one summer, she "kind of liked it here. I just came to the conclusion that bigger isn't always better."

When it came time to decide on a major, history seemed the natural fit. Jokes Branstetter, "I got good grades in my history classes. My son teases that it's because I was closer to it than the other students." Enrolled in a dual major in History and Letters, Arts, and Sciences at Altoona, Branstetter considered what to choose for her senior capstone project.

"All along I had said that I wasn't going to do an internship. I didn't want to take an opportunity away from the traditional-age students," states Branstetter. However, a conversation with Professor Michael Wolfe sparked her interest. "He very casually mentioned that the Bedford County Historical Society could use an intern and my little antennae just went up," she states. "They never had an intern before and I never had an internship, so it was kind of like a nice little marriage; we're learning together."

"I'm not looking for a job. I never started college looking for a job, or parties, or friends. I was looking for education. I just wanted to go to school."
—Mary Jane Branstetter

When describing the Historical Society, Branstetter states, "The facility is overwhelming. They have boxes of stuff everywhere and people just keep bringing in more and more stuff. In the past, I have been accused of being the 'queen of stuff,' so naturally I couldn't wait to get my hands on all those boxes."

The Historical Society has two paid employees and many volunteers, mainly senior citizens. "The Society has a large genealogical library and the volunteers are very knowledgeable about genealogy; if you go there wanting to look up your ancestors, they could readily take you back a generation or two," states Branstetter. "But time does not permit them to do a lot of other things, such as working with those cartons of 'stuff.'"

That's where Branstetter came in. "I have been going through boxes of books and entering the titles on the computer to make an inventory of sorts. Then I take that information to a used book Web site and get feedback on the value of the books. It's a two-fold project—getting rid of the unnecessary books to make more space and generating money to buy acid-free boxes and folders for the materials they want to keep," says Branstetter. "It sounds rather tedious, but to them, this is really important. It's getting rid of clutter and also making money. And I love handling books, especially old books, so it's enjoyable to me."

While many students may view their internship experience as real-world job training or networking, this is not the case for Branstetter.

"I'm not looking for a job. I never started college looking for a job, or parties, or friends. I was looking for education. I just wanted to go to school. This internship has provided me with more education."

This attitude is not common among many college students, who often do not have the luxury to view college simply as education rather than career-training. Notes Branstetter, "I'm not rich, but I guess I can afford to do this for myself."

She recalls, "One time a business student asked me what my major was and, when I told him, he said 'what are you going to do with that?' And I told him, 'not a darn thing!'"

Branstetter, who plans to graduate in spring 2007, is not sure what lies ahead for her. "I just don't know where I'm going next," she states. "I'm old school, so if opportunity knocks, I'm going to pay attention. But I'm not going out trying to create opportunities. My bowl is full right now."